Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own…obviously. Dick Wolf and Neal Baer and all those cool people over there do.

"Liv, I'm home," Elliot yelled walking into her apartment. He'd been there for seven weeks and he was still having trouble finding an apartment and he felt horrible about it. Especially since he was breaking his number one rule in life- don't fall in love with Olivia Benson again. He fell hard for her once before and it never went away, but he taught himself to stifle it. Now it was getting harder and harder to do so as the days went by. He also felt bad about the whole crashing at her house thing too, of course, so he made it up to her by paying all the rent, against her stubborn will.

"Hey, can you get this?" she asked walking out of her room in a little black dress, holding her hair up with one hand and holding a necklace around her throat with the other.

"Uhmmm…Uh. Yeah," he said, taking the necklace and clasping it behind her neck.

"Date tonight," she said when she realized she hadn't explained why she was so dressed up. He is not looking at you like that, Olivia, her conscience scolded her. She knew better than to get her hopes up with Elliot. All he ever did was hurt her, even if he didn't mean to and had no idea he was.

"Who is he?" He asked, involuntarily stiffening and sounding cold.

"His name's Edward Carpenter. He's a fireman," she said, keeping her back towards him and walking towards the bathroom to finish getting ready. No, no, no, no! This is not happening, she thought to herself. She needed a life and Edward seemed like an alright guy, but she could not loose Elliot. She knew though that he was uncomfortable, for whatever reason.

The doorbell rang and Elliot stood up and answered it before Olivia could stop him.

"Hey, Edward, come in and have a seat. Liv'll be right out," Elliot said politely, gesturing to the couch. Olivia could hear the malice in it and walked out to see Elliot leaning against the counter and giving him the stare-down and Edward shifting around uncomfortably.

Olivia was standing behind the couch and caught Elliot's eye.

"What're you doing?!" She mouthed to him. Her only response was a cheeky grin. She inwardly groaned.

"Want a beer, Carpenter?" Elliot asked, turning around and grabbing two cans from the fridge, shaking one like crazy.

"Yeah, that'd be great. So, who are you?"

"I'm Officer Elliot Stabler, Liv's best friend and partner. I live here, by the way, so no hibbity-dibbity here tonight, buddy," he said, handing Edward the shaken up can, "and I will be waiting up for her."

Olivia was burning with fury and embarrassment. God, he was such an ass!

"Uh, I'll have her back by one?"

"Try midnight, hot shot," he said, as Edward's can of beer exploded all over him.

The minute Edward stormed out of the apartment Olivia marched up to Elliot and smacked him in the face, tears of anger and frustration running down her face. Damn it, she hated it when she got mad to the point where she actually cried. It made her feel weak.

"Why'd you do that?!" She screamed at him.

He was just staring at her. He didn't know what to say.

"Oh, now you have nothing to say! Now that you've run one of the very few nice guys that are left out of my apartment! Elliot, I'm 42 years old. 42! Do you seriously think it's easy for me to get a decent date? Huh?"

"Livvy…"

"Don't you 'Livvy' me, Elliot Stabler! I've waited and waited for who I couldn't have and I'm trying to move on here! Let me!" She screamed at him, before he grabbed her face with both of his hands and his lips crashed down onto hers.

She gasped and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him back. He moved his arms down to her waist and held her close and hard to him. He backed her up against a wall and she let him pick her up and push her against it. She didn't want him to ever stop kissing her. She finally had him and the thought of ever losing him was terrifying.

His lips left hers, but he didn't put her down or back away, he just wanted to look at her. What he saw sent butterflies through his stomach. He hadn't had butterflies in a long time. She looked gorgeous to him- eyes still wet from crying, cheeks rosy from yelling then his unsuspected kiss, her hair was curled, kind of how it looked when she first woke up in the morning, and she was looking at him with such love and longing that he couldn't help but smile and kiss her again.